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Reforming Policing and Healing Community-Police Relations through Community Engagement

The killing of Philando Castile by a police officer last summer brought to the foreground longstanding patterns of racial discrimination in criminal justice, the unfinished history of police involvement in oppressing people of color in the US, and mutually broken trust between police and communities. It was met by grief and rage as well as by realization of the need and hope for reform. This project involves ethnographic, community-based research through the Falcon Heights Task Force on Inclusion and Policing. As a case study with actionable lessons for others working on criminal justice and racial disparity, it will provide insights about designing and implementing policing reform, with attention not only to the substantive issues of policy design, but also to community-based work to address bias and rebuild police-community relationships. It will also illuminate the perils and possibilities of different kinds of ways diverse stakeholders engage in equity-oriented policy reform. Researcher: Kathryn S. Quick (Humphrey School of Public Affairs)